


Peter Parker is sorta screwed

by Smol0ctopus



Series: Peter is sorta screwed [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Tower, BAMF Michelle Jones, BAMF Pepper Potts, BAMF Peter Parker, BAMF Tony Stark, Bisexual Peter Parker, F/M, Field Trip, Idk what I’m doing, Irondad, Mj is scary, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Non Civil War compliant, Peter Parker is a dork, Peter Parker's Field Trip to Stark Industries, Thanos who, The avengers fighting like 5 years olds who??, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, field trip trope, i know it’s overplayed but I wanted to try, non endgame compliant, spiderson, the avengers are one big happy family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 16:21:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19299355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smol0ctopus/pseuds/Smol0ctopus
Summary: So this is my take on the classic field trip trope to Avenger’s Tower where Peter is super smart and everyone is a big happy family. This is my first fic, so sorry if it’s bad!! If you see any errors, feel free to point them out in a comment!





	1. Peter should pay attention in class more

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic guys! Idk if I should continue it, so any feedback would be great. I also just got an awesome beta, [Honorable_mention](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honorable_mention) and you guys should definitely check them out. Thank you for reading, and kudos and comments would be awesome!! This fic is a gift for my friend Paige who told me to write it when she said she could write one better lol.

Peter felt a random prickle of anxiety the second that he walked into Mr. Harrington’s physics class. Oh, it was one of those days. 

“Dude are you okay? You looked dead inside for a second there,” Ned asked, genuinely concerned for his friend. Peter had been looking more and more tired lately, and thinner than usual. “Is it- ya know? Thwip thwip stuff?” He made the web-shooting gesture with his hand, and Peter felt a little bit of his soul leave his body. 

“Ned! What are you doing? Someone’s gonna see it!” Peter hissed. 

“Relax, man. Literally no one cares” Ned hastened to reply. A little to quickly maybe, as Peter’s face fell a little, like a sad golden retriever. 

“This is AP Physics Peter. It’s May, we’re pretty much done here for the year. No one wants to be here, and no one’s gonna notice us. It’s a good thing!!”

Peter calmed down slightly. Maybe that’s why his spider sense alerted him? Because Ned was going to try and accidentally out him? He was sure that was it. Absolutely no reason to panic. No reason at all really. Peter was simply being silly. Before Peter got the chance to respond however, the bell rang and cut him off. Man, high-schools really didn’t make bells for those with advanced hearing in mind. 

“All right class, settle down, take your seats. The bell rang and I’d like to start my class, if that’s okay with you Peter?” Peter scurried to his seat, embarrassed at being reprimanded by his favorite teacher. “You too Eugune, you and I both know that’s not your assigned seat. Now class, I have an exciting announcement to make…”

Zoning out, Peter rethought why Mr.Harrington was his favorite teacher. He may say everything in a monotone voice that showed just how dead inside he was, and not actually teach Peter anything, but he wasn’t afraid to call out Flash for being a jerk. All of the other teachers were afraid of Flash too much to tell him off. Flash’s parents’ money disappearing, at least, the teachers were afraid of. But not Mr. Harrington. He feared no man. Except, maybe, he may fear mostly everything else to be honest. 

Peter physically shook himself out of his thoughts. He needed to pay attention, they had a test coming up!! Well, he didn’t really need to listen. He had already learned all this stuff 2 years ago when Mr. Stark decided to actually make him an intern, after the whole Homecoming disaster. Now he was a senior, and just desperate to graduate so he could take on the world. He was already taking college classes and he was a hecking lab director at SI, for Thor’s sake!

Sadly, MJ saw Peter being a dork as he s h o o k his own head to clear his mind. Not just metaphorically, the kid actually shook his head like a dog with fleas. A very cute dog though, so it wasn’t totally a bad sight. Of course, MJ being MJ, mouthed the words at him to make sure he understood that he was a loser. Peter wouldn’t have had her any other way if she didn’t. 

“Dude ohmygod can you believe it? This field trip is gonna be awesome!!” Ned painfully jerked Peter back to reality as he shook Peter’s shoulder with his excitement. “This is gonna be the best thing to ever happen to me!!!”

“Wait- what? I totally zoned out there dude, sorry.”

“Nah it’s fine, I get it. But hey, have you been getting enough sleep? I’m a little worried about you dude, not gonna lie to you” 

Peter brushed off Ned’s nervous motherhenning, again. Ever since Ned had found out Peter was Spider-Man, he tended to sway between two extremes: trying to bundle Peter in bubble wrap and keep him safe, and freaking out over how famous Peter was. He bounced back and forth from the two like a yapping dog choosing between two of its favorite people. 

“I’m fine Ned. Just thinking about Mr. Harrington”

“Ew, why would you choose to do that?” Ned looked repulsed by the very thought of Peter’s thoughts. 

“Maybe I have a crush on him, you don’t know! I happen to find his monotone voice and outfits dreamy!!” Peter sarcastically replied, hoping for a good reaction. 

“Man, not even your bisexual butt would sink that low. And no way would you risk MJ’s wrath by cheating on her. Plus, I think it’d actually pain you to look at someone else instead of her.”

Damn, Peter was looking for something a little funnier than that. “Dude I wasn’t looking for a call out here. And like you and Betty are any better. Just tell me what I missed? Please?” Peter wasn’t ashamed of begging, nor using his puppy dog eyes when the need arose. He was a superhero, he did what he had to do. 

“Oh, right totally forgot about that lol. We’re going to the Avengers Tower on a field trip! And don’t mock Betty, Betty’s the best!”

Peters stomach dropped to his feet as his life flashed before his eyes. 

“Ned. Please understand that I want a completely honest answer when I say this, but did you just say the letters l-o-l to my face?” Peter solemnly spoke, trying to pretend he didn’t understand the second part of what Ned said. 

“That’s what your focus is on? Peter, we’re gonna meet the Avengers! Oh my god we might see Thor! Is Thor on Earth? Will we see Iron Man? Peter will we get to go to your labs? This is gonna be the best day of my life! I’m so excited holy crap!! Peter we might see Pepper Potts! WE MIGHT EVEN SEE BRUCE BANNER! I’m gonna hyperventilate, this is _**IT**_ , man!!”

Peter tuned out Ned’s verbal vomit as what had just happened truly sunk in. He was totally screwed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof, have any advice? Comments? Kudos? Whatever will work lol. Merci beaucoup!!


	2. MJ is a queen and must be treated as such

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s basically in the title guys. 
> 
> Mild warning for some swearing from Flash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kind comments and kudos on the last chapter! I felt so inspired that I hammered out like 15 hundred more words when I should be studying for my Finals. Y’all know the drill, if you find a mistake point it out, and please leave a kudos or comment, that’s what keeps the juices flowing!! <3333

Peter and Ned, one more freaked out than the other, book it out of class as the bell rings to end the period. 

“Ned what do I do? It’s Friday, today’s a lab day! How do I act in front of Mr. Stark?”

Ned snorted at his friends antics. Peter Parker may have spider-sense, but he certainly didn’t have common sense. 

“Dude, just tell him about it. It’s really not going to be all that bad,” Ned tried to comfort his friend while keeping a straight face. “Plus, we might get to see the Avengers! Imagine that!”

“Ned. You literally were at the tower last week for movie night. You’ve met all the Avengers.” Peter said in an absolute deadpan while trying to give his best imitation of the Winter Soldier’s patented, ‘are you shittin me’ face. 

Ned, having been submitted to Peter’s, rather good, impression before takes it all in stride. But he cracks anyways, impatient to tease his friend and get him to loosen up. “Yeah!! That’s the best part man! I can’t wait to see what they do to you!”

“You’re forgetting that they know you too though. Do you really want the Avengers to find you?”  
Ned pales at this sudden epiphany, and realizes that maybe this trip won’t be as fun as it had first seemed. 

“What’s that Penis? You don’t want the Avengers to find you huh? Afraid they’ll call you out for your fake internship?”  
Flash saunters out of the classroom, looking for all matters like he owns the place. Peter’s shoulders curve into him, and he starts to slowly make his body smaller and more vulnerable looking. Ned stares Flash down and is about to retort, something cheesey but very heart-felt, when he no longer needs to. This is because swaggering Flash, well, he falls face first to the ground. 

MJ tripped him. 

“You bitch! Try not having your nose up the teacher’s ass and watch your goddamn feet!!” Flash sputters as he tries to save some face and leaps up to his feet. It’s no use though, for the people within earshot are already snorting and hiding their laughs as coughs. 

“Must be a cold going around, listen to all those poor souls coughing.” Ned mutters sarcastically, knowing that only Peter can hear his jibe. Peter has to hide his answering snort as another cough, which earns him an elbow to the ribs. 

“What Flash,” MJ says, finally looking up from her book like it’s causing her harm to give her attention to something so insignificant. It’s a really hot look for her. “Did your parents not give you enough attention as a child? You had to curse to get their attention? Watch your goddamn mouth, you poor insolent bastard.”

No one could come back from that, not even Flash has a comeback quick enough. It must be all those books that she reads, they’ve made her salty and quick to the right words to end someone’s life (metaphorically, not literally. MJ would never use the word literally in a place where something was not literal. She’s not a heathen, Peter). Flash grows redder and redder before stomping his foot and starting his walk to his next class before stopping and dramatically spinning around like Draco Malfoy. That was probably his plan the whole time. 

“This isn’t over, you fucking whore. Just cause you got a pretty little quick mouth doesn’t get you off easy. Even if you are easy.” Flash seems awfully proud of what he’s said, even though it’s really not that great. For all practical matters, Flash looks like a 2 year old throwing a tantrum. 

“Enjoy your slow transformation into a tomato, Eugene. And even if you **weren’t** trying to enforce the patriarchy by calling me a ‘whore’ and demeaning people based on how much sexual intercourse they had partaken in, I still wouldn’t sleep with you. Have a nice day, Draco.”

MJ utterly destroys Flash’s chance of getting out of this, before her intervention, mild conflict. He closes his gaping mouth and sprints off to his next class. There’s no way to come back from MJ tearing you apart. You’d think he’d learn after all this time, but some people are just too stupid. 

“I’ve never been more attracted to a human being in my entire life on this trash can of a planet. ” Peter uttered the words reverently to Ned, with an awed expression of gooey puppy love on his face. “She’s got such a way with words, man. I’m so screwed.”

“It be like that sometimes, Petey-boi. Now com’on, we’ve got to class and so does she. Meet at the library at the end of the day though, yeah?”

Peter gives a distracted nod as he makes his way to English on autopilot. At least he got something nice out of this sure-to-be awful field trip experience. 

 

*********************************

The trio gathers at the school library after classes end for the day. They usually end up just walking to the subway together before they have to split up. It’s not really a huge amount of time together and sort of pointless, but it’s fun so they don’t stop. It started as a tradition on non- AcaDec days after Peter got a particularly bad beating while Spider-Manning and no one trusted him to not try and go on patrol if he wasn’t walked home. Usually Betty joins them, but she had to get picked up early for a dentist appointment for her wisdom teeth, leaving Ned as a third wheel but never feeling like one. Best friends are cool like that. 

“Hey MJ?” Peter starts out of nowhere. “I’d just like to say that you’re my role model and I could never repay you for letting me witness something as cool as what you did after Physics today. Thank you for blessing my life.” 

“Yeah yeah, it’s whatever loser.” MJ can put up a great facade, but even an amateur spy could see the fondness for her great blundering golden retriever puppy leaking through her mask. She doesn’t have as good a cap on her emotions as she wants everyone to think, it seems. Peter sorta has realized this by now. But only sorta, the boy is kind of oblivious. 

“Hey, do you think you could get me an interview with Pepper Potts after our field trip? I want to ask her about being the CEO of a Fortune 500 and what it’s like to shatter the glass ceiling for my blog. And maybe ask how she handles Dr. Stark. That’s an impressive feat of any mortal, let alone one who has so many other responsibilities.”

“Yeah I can probably swing something like that babe. She certainly wouldn’t mind, she’s probably going to be honored. Why didn’t you ask sooner?? You were there last week?” Peter, used to his amazing kick ass girlfriend, isn’t startled by her request, but rather by the fact that it took her so long. 

“No dude remember? She was interviewing Miss Natasha Black Widow Ma’am and Wanda before that. What’s up with you memory Peter? Hit a billboard while swinging too many times?” Ned interjected. 

“That was one time! Let it go Ned!”

“Oh but Peter! Someone got it on video and you know what’s on the internet never dies. Would you rather that or the photo of you with toilet paper on your foot? Beggars can’t be choosers loser.” MJ back at it again with the startling truths, but this time with fond undertones and not murderous ones. 

“Fine I guess. See you guys Monday? I think Happy’s probably waiting for me. He’ll be pissed if I make him wait much longer.” Peter pouted (it wasn’t cute in the slightest, shut up Ned!)

“Bye Peter! Don’t forget the permission slip is due on Tuesday! And the 500 pages of NDAs!” Ned simply waves goodbye, as MJ said pretty much what he was thinking. No wait, there’s still the-

“PETER!!! DONT FORGET THAT IM COMING OVER TO THE TOWER SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND GET ME LOCKED OUT AND LOOKING STUPID. AGAIN!!!” Ned mockingly rages at Peter. 

“Don’t worry, I promise I won’t forget.” He’s totally going to forget. 

But that doesn’t matter, as he rushes to the creepy black car waiting for him

“Hey kid. Get in, Tony’s waiting.” Happy barks out at Peter, seemingly not his namesake with Peter. Peter knows better though. Happy secretly loves him. Probably. Peter is, like, 90% sure that Happy doesn’t hate him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pls leave comments and kudos love you all thank you!!!! <333


	3. Uh? He's actually kinda a big deal here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter heads to stark industries for his internship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait guys! I promise I'm not dead tho! I really did mean to update, but life just caught up to me, ya know? Thank y'all so much for the positive feedback, it really means a lot! Hopefully I'll be posting more regularly from now on, probably about once a week, but maybe more sporadically than that. I have one other chapter half done, and bullets up to ch. 7 so I'm hoping to keep it going. If you see any errors, feel free to point them out!
> 
> ^^words in italics are Peter's thoughts  
> 

_'Alright,'_ Peter reasoned to himself, _‘play it cool. No one will notice if you don’t give yourself away.’_

Done psyching himself up on the sidewalk, Peter walks into the lobby of the Avengers Tower with (fake) ease and (well-practiced) confidence. He may be there all the time, but the view never gets old. People hustle and bustle all around the lobby, as if they’re actually happy to be at their jobs and need to get everything they can get done as fast as humanly possible as they can get it done. 

However, Peter’s plan had one fatal flaw: he was up against the Avengers. Sure, they may spend their time having Mario Kart tournaments, but they were also world renowned spies, tactical and overall geniuses, and super soldiers. In essence, our boi didn’t stand a chance at surviving this field trip with a shred of his dignity intact. 

Peter’s totally nonchalant walk slows down as he reaches the front desk to say hello to Mrs. Babbitt, the elderly but incredibly sassy receptionist. Peter, having the clearance that he does, definitely doesn’t have to stop and talk to her if he didn’t want to. In fact, he often doesn’t have the time to do so. Yet every time he found himself in the tower he would greet her, because May Parker raised a gentleman.

“Heya Mrs. B! How goes it?” 

“Pretty good here, Pete. How’s school going for you?”

For her part, the 73 year old Melody Babbitt greatly appreciates Peter. Sure, she notices how young he is, but he has the brains to make up for it. She’s got some brains too though, and knows her little spider will always do what’s right. It’s definitely fun to smirk at him behind his back though. 

“Eh, school’s school, ya know? Much more fun here though!”

“Well, carry on through. Have a nice day, Peter!

Peter waves farewell to Mrs. Babbitt, his nerves somewhat calmed by the routine exchange between the two. He swipes his red level 10 pass through the scanners and walks through what looks like a simple metal detector. In reality, J.O.C.A.S.T.A., one of Tony Stark’s lesser known AIs, is scanning Peter, or whomever walks through, for dangerous materials and verifying the identity of the card-holder. This is JOCASTA’s primary use, so she basically can identity every single SI employee at the tower, although she seldom interacts with anyone. Because of her lack of interaction, her existence is a well-kept secret that gives SI that extra edge of security. 

Since SI is a place of business with many classified projects, JOCASTA doesn’t announce Peter’s presenance, nor his security clearance. Peter, ever the polite child, still quietly greets her. He did help to design and code her for her new job after Mr.Stark chose FRIDAY for his primary AI after the loss of JARVIS, after all. It’d be impolite for him to anything but!

With his typical afternoon routine completed, Peter heads for the elevator to take him up to his lab to check on his projects before he heads to the Intern Labs floor. He may be an ‘intern’ himself, but he’s still the unofficial Lab Director of the interns. Whenever anyone is stuck on a project, they head straight for Peter. He’s only slightly younger than everyone else, so really it’s ‘no big deal’. He’s only been LD for 2 years and gone through 2 different groups of interns who chose him to be the leader of their own accord. Really, no big deal at all. 

Regardless, Peter heads up to his lab. Unluckily for him, Mr. Stark has a different idea.

“Hey Fri? Where are we headed? I think we passed my lab…” Peter mutters suspiciously as FRIDAY studiously doesn’t reply. 

Peter exits the elevator to see Mr. Stark standing in his own personal lab. Peter starts to die inside as he realizes he’s been found out. Mr. Stark usually let’s Peter head to Peter’s lab and his Lab Director duties on Friday, and the two work together in Mr.Stark’s personal lab on Saturdays. Crap.

“Hey there Pete,” Mr. Stark starts off easily. “Anything you wanna tell me? Hap said you weren’t chattering his ear off in the car. He was concerned, and texted me about it. Can you imagine? As if I don’t have better things to do than worry about some melodramatic teenage drama.” Mr.Starks snarky rambling really only proves that he cares about Peter more than he’s letting on. Peter’s 100% sure of that one, at least.

“It’s really nothing Mr.Stark! Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing!!” Peter blurts out.

“It’s not nothing if it has your underoos in a bunch there, underoos. Is it MJ? Is everything good between you and Miss Murder?”

Well, never say that Peter didn’t take a good opportunity that smacks him in the face.

“It’s not that big a deal, Mr. Stark. We just had a small disagreement. It’s all my fault really.”

“Kid, how many times do I have to tell you? It’s Tony. And want to talk about it?” Mr. Sta- Tony makes an exaggeratedly gross face at the last part, to Peter’s relief. He didn’t think this all the way through, and didn’t have a fake argument ready to go. 

“Sure thing Mr. Stark!”  
“Okay, now you’re just being a little shit. Go do your job, or you’re fired.”

“Of course Mr. Stark! See ya for dinner!” Peter chirps innocently. Hm, a little too innocent mayhaps.

“Oh! Kid, before you leave,” Mr. Stark grabs Peter’s elbow, “Thor’s on Earth for the weekend so we’re having a team dinner tonight at 8. Don’t forget to come up, or I’ll send Pepper after you!”

 

****************************************

Peter marches into the Intern Lab, forgoing his usual stop to work on his own projects to make up for some lost time. Almost immediately, he’s whisked into checking over some code.

“Hey Kevin! This isn’t too bad, you just have a few simple mistakes here and there. When’s the last time you’ve even slept buddy?” Peter says to someone 6 years older than him. “How about I fix this up for you and you go take a quick power nap?

Kevin, for his part, looks dead on his feet with bags under his eyes the size of Peter’s (undeserved) self guilt. 

“You’re a lifesaver, Peter. I haven’t slept in, like, 32 hours. Where do you even come from man?” 

“Queens” Peter brightly replies as Kevin stumbles zombie-like to the nearest sofa and plops down, someone dropping a blanket on him as they walk by. 

The next three hours go much the same way, until six when the regular interns clock out for the day and head home. In that time, Peter fixes four sets of code, helps brainstorm how to innovate the old StarkPhones the interns are given to mess around with, and tells three separate people to go take naps. It’s very eventful, to say the least. 

With two hours left to kill, Peter heads up to his own lab to work on his web fluid. He’s trying to figure out a way to use the polymers for medicinal uses. He had used it to try and seal up some of his own stab wounds when he originally came up with the idea, but don’t tell Mr. Stark that. Most people get a little suspicious when he tells them what he’s working on, but stop caring when they hear his cover story. Anyways, SI employees have to sign so many NDAs that even if they did figure something out there’d be no way they could say anything. The damage would already be done if someone did spill, but they’d be sued six ways to Sunday to make up for it.

Two hours (and 15 minutes) pass quickly, the nearly soundproof walls and special lights in Peter’s lab helping to prevent a sensory overload after all the work he’s done today. Ever since the spidey bite, Peter’s had to be careful not to overwork himself, or he’d dearly pay for it. Yet when Peter really and truly focuses on something, not much can deter his focus, which has cause many a gray hair for Mr. Stark. But with his Mad Spidey Focus Skills(tm by Ned Leeds) he quickly makes some progress with the polymers (the webs). And he also gets dragged up for dinner. Welp, he may as well accept his death now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for sticking around guys! love y'all, and please leave comments and kudos, especially if you're just joining us! If y'all have any suggestions that'd be great too!!!


	4. a normal family? what's that?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> peter has dinner with his avengers family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so much to [Honorable_mention](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honorable_mention) for beta-ing for me! You guys should definitely go check out their fics, they're really good! I'm also going to try to make a regular updating schedule, so expect a new chapter each week, on either Tuesday or Wednesday. If I can stick to it, that is...
> 
> Notes:  
> italics = peters thoughts  
> ^words^ = russian  
> {words} = sign language  
> маленький паук = little spider  
> мама паук = mama spider

Family dinners when you have a ‘normal’ family can be hectic and stressful. When your family’s the Avengers, though, it’s a whole other level. When Peter finally enters the common room, hectic would be an understatement for the scene that greets him.

“How kind of you to grace us with your presence, Petey-pie!” Sam taunts.

“How could we ever start dinner without our beloved mascot?” Clint says, spilling his drink on himself as he does so. “Aw, drink, no!”

“Peter just couldn’t help himself, guys. He needed a dramatic entrance.” Pepper teases Peter with a fond glare. Even she couldn’t stop herself from caving to the taunts. 

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up guys. I guess you don’t want those new arrows then, Clint? And you’d be fine if I never fixed Droney, right Sam?” Peter gives as good as he gets, knowing full well that Tony won’t fix the Avengers’ gear if he can pass it off to Peter (and that Peter will probably end up fixing the gear anyway).

“Wait- no, please don’t!” Clint quickly backtracks as the huge group goes to (finally) eat dinner.

“I pity whatever restaurant had to make this mountain of food,” Peter says.

“Oh don’t worry about it, Pete. I helped make some of it, and Buck made the cookies, “  
None other than the mighty, handsome, and muscular Captain America himself buts in. Although Steve Rogers was really the one who made the dinner. 

“Nice! Are we doing dessert first, then? I’d love some cookies to go with my side of field trip.” With a few simple words, Natasha single-handedly shatters Peter’s dreams of ever surviving this field trip.

“^Really мама паук? Was that necessary?^” Peter pouts in Russian.

“^Wait, crap, you know Russian, Pete?^” Clint panics as he thinks of all the secret gossip he and Nat have done in Russian. “{What about ASL?}” Clint signs.

“^{Yes to both}^”

“^Where’d you learn Russian маленький паук?^” Nat interjects.

“^You always call me маленький паук so I figured I’d learn it as a surprise. So, surprise?^” Peter looks sheepish, even though he learned an entire other language as a gift for the spy. 

“^That’s very chivalrous of you, Young Peter! What a generous gift!^” Thor’s booming voice commands everyone's attention, startling Peter, who almost forgot Thor was coming.

“^Wait, Thor, you know Russian? That’s so cool!!^” Peter exclaims. 

“Ah, Young Parkerson, I use Allspeak which permits me to speak and understand every language. It is most helpful in my journeys.” 

“And with that, I’m done with not understanding the conversation. Let’s eat guys, I’m starving.” Mr. Stark diverts attention back to dinner, as everyone realizes that, yeah, they’re really hungry.

It takes a while for everyone to get seated with plates of food. There are arguments, teasing, and conversations the whole time; there’s never a dull moment in the Avengers Tower. Peter gives a sigh of relief as he inhales his plate, his spider metabolism never satisfied. He successfully outmaneuvered the Black Widow into dropping the field trip. He’s still not sure how she even found out, to be honest. She is a professional spy though, so she probably has her ways; it’d most likely be best to not know at all for plausible deniability. Peter was waiting for Nat’s self appointed birthday to drop the Russian surprise , but some things must be sacrificed for the greater good. With great power comes great responsibility after all.

At least, he thinks so until everyone is seated on various couches with cookies, preparing to watch a movie. 

“So, underoos, what’s this I hear ‘bout a field trip?” Mr. Stark starts off nonchalantly. Too nonchalantly, almost.

_‘Play dumb, Peter!’_

“Who’s underoos?” _‘NOT THAT DUMB!’_

Peter may not have stopped Mr. Stark’s mission, but he’s certainly slowed it down, going by the utterly confused look on Mr. Stark’s face. 

_‘At least I’ve thrown him off his rhythm!’_

“STREET SMARTS!” Peter shrieks, much to the surprise of the others in the room.

Except for Clint.

“Hell yeah bro! John Mulaney for the win!” Clint reaches out for a high five, and gets an awkward one for his troubles, much to everyone else's enjoyment. 

“Anyways, what actually is this field trip?” Bruce, ever the mediator, trying to steer the conversation back on track.

“Oh, it’s nothing guys! I just have a field trip coming up next Friday!” Peter says, trying to win everyone over with his happy-go-lucky puppy-dog look. It doesn’t work.

“Mhmm. And where, pray tell, is said Field trip to, маленький паук?” Natasha questions.

Stark Industries is the muttered answer, to the cheers and immediate teasing of the rest of the group. Even Pepper, the traitor. Well, you can hardly blame her; she’s been wanting to prove to Peter’s classmates that he’s had an internship for a while because she knew he was being bullied. Peter being an intern was an understatement, after all. He was practically the heir to Stark Industries at this point. Not to mention the fact that she was the one to arrange the field trip in the first place. But what Pete didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

“Just,” Peter says, resigned to his fate, “please try not to embarrass me. If anyone figured out I’m more than just a regular intern, they might figure out I’m Spider-Man too, and I really don’t want that to happen. Just- I know I can’t stop you, but try at least.”

 

“Don’t worry Peter. We won’t embarrass you **too** badly.” Steve finishes off with a wink in Peter’s direction, and one in Bucky’s direction. Which means he was basically just blinking. And looking in two different directions.

“Those _videos_ you made really don’t convey what a dork you are, huh Steve?” Peter states in a dead tone, not at all afraid of a little blackmail. It’s said a little unfriendly coercion is good for your health.

Steve clams up, but everyone else clamors for a bit of Peter’s attention.

“Can we spray paint your name on the building?”

“What if I forget you’re on a field trip and desperately need your help?”

“Maybe I’ll just happen to be sparring on the lower level gyms. Then could I say hi?”

“What if you ‘accidentally’ forget your lunch and I need to bring it down for you?”

“If I’m making fresh cookies, you’d want me to bring some down, right?”

“Mayhaps I’ll need your help with some Midguadrian ‘memes’!”

“Only you can have such bad luck, man!”

“Lucky might want to see you if you’re around, though! And you love dogs.”

All the noise and suggestions turn out to be too much for Peter as his senses go into overdrive, causing him to curl into himself. But before anyone can notice, the problem is taken care of.

Mr.Stark, who had been silent up until this point, starts manically laughing. Like, really going at it, Bond villain style. Soon enough, every single person in the room is laughing, changing the moment from too loud and anxiety inducing to silly and lighthearted.

“You’d think for a bunch of superheroes who have to listen to villain monologues so often, you’d have the evil cackle, the mwahaha, down at this point. I guess not.” Peter drawls, finishing with a gesture to the sad sacks surrounding him. 

The rest of the evening flies by in much the same manner, with never a dull moment in between movies. Peter may whine and pout, but the Avengers are his team. They’re his family. But he resolutely **doesn’t** think about how one Avenger in particular may be more of a father-figure than a mentor. 

***************************

Peter heads home late Sunday morning after an incredibly busy weekend spent with Mr. Stark and Bruce, going over advancements Peter’s been making on his medical polymers. He was running around the whole tower to help out various departments, and making sure the interns met their deadlines. Plus, Ned coming over Saturday afternoon to hang out was just an added variable of craziness. Needless to say, a quiet day in with May was just what the doctor called for. Literally. Mr. Stark, holder of a PhD, told him to chill out before he fried his brain.

 _‘Hmmm, maybe I should call Mr.Stark - **Dr. Stark** \- to piss him off more’_ Peter thinks as he cuddles with May on the couch. He has at least a few hours before he’ll be allowed to go out as Spider-Man, and it feels nice to just sit for a moment. Peter feels a little guilty for taking Friday off, so he’ll have to put in extra time to make up for it.

But before that, he needs to get May to sign his permission slip and his NDAs.  
Of course, she’ll probably laugh her butt off at him. Great. He can’t wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all should know the drill at this point. comments and kudos are much appreciated *tips cowboy hat as a non-southern gal*


	5. Flash is a jerk, but he's still a kid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> reminder, italics= Peter's thoughts. Also, it’s come to my attention that I dropped a detail about Ned going to the tower on Sunday to hang out. I’ve changed that to Saturday afternoon for plot hole reasons, and I’ll have a ficlet coming out sometime between now and the next update, because I already had this chapter written. You can also expect a ficlet off of something in this chapter that I already have written, so that may come out before the Ned chapter. sorry i forgot to update earlier!

As expected, Aunt May absolutely _loved_ signing the permission slip for Peter. She’s only human, after all. In fact, because she larbs Peter so much, she insisted that she give the stack of required papers to MJ. She had to ensure that one of the papers didn’t just so happen to slip out of the stack. And there goes Peter’s last hope. 

************************

The week both drags on and seems to fly by as the field trip approaches. Before Peter can even blink, it’s Wednesday, only two days until the trip. Tensions are flying high, as the kids on the trip are excited to see if Peter was really telling the truth or not, and to call him out if he wasn’t. For the most part, though, kids don’t care. It’s just one kid spinning tales for attention, most likely. Peter doesn’t really blame the kids, the ones who leave him alone, for not believing. After all, it **is** sort of unbelievable, even to Peter. 

But the kids who **do** bother Peter? Well that’s a whole other story. It’s not usually anything too bad, just whispers behind his back, rumors, and some light name calling. But with the field trip coming up, things start to get more serious. Peter tries not to let people get to him. He’s Spider-Man!. But Flash is on a level of jerk-ness all by himself. 

It all comes to a head in the cafeteria during senior lunch.

Peter and his friends are eating, reading, and napping, respectively, when Peter’s feels his spidey-sense flare a little. 

_‘Stupid super-anxiety. What is it this time? A pencil on the floor?’_

Flash waltzes up to the trio’s table, and snarks, “When’s the wedding, Penis and Fatso? You gonna stand for this blatant cheating, Michelle?”

Peter lifts his head from where it was resting on Ned’s shoulder, for a quick power nap, to stare Flash dead in the eyes. It’s unsettling, to say the least. It’s MJ that speaks up, though.

“What, Flash? Does it make you uncomfortable to see two male friends show affection for each other? Were you not hugged enough as a young child that you see the need to lash out at others when they receive comfort?” MJ dryly says.

“Yea- wait, no,” Flash sputters. “At least my girlfriend doesn’t have to fight my battles for me!”

“At least I have a girlfriend,” Peter says.

“It’s not worth it, Pete. Don’t bother,” Ned says quietly. 

Flash finally storms off, Draco Malfoy style.

“He should just dye his hair at this point to complete his Draco cosplay look,” Peter says.

Too bad Flash is a self-proclaimed ‘jock’, at a **nerd** school, and refuses to read a book he doesn’t have to. 

“He’s too lazy, he’d never do it. He’ll never get the chance to relate to the prestigious git, and compare their father issues. A tragedy, really” MJ says, her voice _filled_ with sadness.

The rest of the period goes by without incident, giving Peter a much needed second of calm. Between Spider-Manning each night, homework for high school **and** college, and the internship, free time is something that Peter seldom gets. 

But because of Peter’s famous Parker Luck, this calmness runs out with the period. When the bell’s about a minute from ringing, Peter gets up to throw out some of his trash when he feels his spidey-sense start to scream at him again. This time, though, he’s walking by Flash’s lunch table so it’s not too surprising. 

_‘Alright, Peter. Just act natural, he’s probably gonna trip you.’_

Flash, being utterly predictable when he’s lost a verbal showdown to MJ, does just what Peter thinks he will: he trips Peter. This has happened before, usually Peter stumbles while Flash and his cronies laugh it off, and then everyone involved moves on. And maybe it’s Peter’s Parker Luck, or maybe Flash is feeling particularly vengeful, but this time happens to be different.

Peter trips over Flash’s leg, and instead of just stumbling he leans head first to the corner of a table, banging his forehead on the sharp corner. 

“Oh- shit, Penis, do you have a concussion?” Contrary to popular belief, Flash isn’t a total asshole. That, and if Peter was seriously injured it’d go on his permanent record and his parents would kill him. 

“Whaaaa?” Peter says, a little out of it, but not too far gone yet. To make matters even worse, the bell rings, piercing Peter’s enhanced ears. Peter winces, and Flash does too: he’s screwed. Unless…

“Guys, let’s go! He’s probably fine, I don’t want to be late for class!” Flash panics, scurrying out of the cafeteria as if the Black Widow was chasing him. Which, unless Peter’s fine, she might be. Mama spiders look after their little spiders in the Avengers family. 

“PETER! ARE YOU OKAY MAN?” Ned shrieks, racing across the room to his collapsed friend.

“I can’t believe they’d just walk away like that..” MJ says, helping Peter to stand up.

“Yeah. What, uh- dicks!” Ned says, wrapping Peter’s other arm around his shoulder as he and MJ help Peter limp to the nurse. “Are you okay though? Seriously dude, you’re not looking too hot.”

“It’s fine guys, just a little scratch. Everything is a little loud right now though, so if you could maybe quiet down a little?” Peter says weakly.

“Sorry, Pete. Is this any better?” MJ whispers.

“Yeah, I just need to lie down for a bit. The cut will heal pretty quickly, I think.”

Just as Peter is getting settled on a crinkly cot in the nurse’s office, all prepared for a nice nap, his phone rings with Mr. Stark’s signature song, Iron Man by Black Sabbath.

“I could’ve sworn my phone was muted…” Peter mutters as he quickly sits up to grab his phone from his backpack, wincing from the blood suddenly rushing to his head. Not his brightest idea.  
“Mr. Stark! What’s up? Why’d you override my phone? Is there a mission you need me for?” Peter rambles, pausing to take a breath.

“Woah, kid! Slow down, I just called to check up on you; your vitals are showing an increased heart rate.”

“Wait, how can you even see my vitals? I don’t have my suit on!”

“Yeah, you know that ‘super cool’ watch with the web shooters I gave you for Christmas? Well it let’s me keep track of you. Ya know, so I can make sure Aunt Hottie doesn’t flip out on me. Again.”

“Is that even legal?”

“Is being a vigilante even legal? The answer’s no. It’s not. Get off your legal high horse here, underoos.” Mr. Stark says, covering up his affection with sass and snark.

“Hmm… touché, I guess.”

“You betcha. Now tell me what’s up, kiddo. I’m a very busy man, you know.”

“Well…” Peter trails off, unsure how much he wants to tell Mr.Stark about the bullying.

“Was it that Lightning kid again? Quick? Flash? I don’t care about the twerp’s name, but I thought you said he stopped bullying you years ago?”

“Mostly! It’s not that bad Mr.Stark! He just tripped me and I cut my head a little, and then the bell rang so my senses went into overdrive a little.” 

“Hold on, you’re not playing off a sensory overload, are you? Do I need to come down there?” Mr. Stark says, having dealt with Peter’s self-sacrificing antics before.

“No! I swear, it’s nothing that serious. Just a little haywire, not a full overload.You don’t need to come!”

“Alright, Pete. If you insist. I’ll stop by the little kiddo lab today to check-up on you later, just to make sure you’re not hiding a stab wound. _Again._ ”

“Wait, no- Hey! The interns aren’t all little kids!” Peter says, but it’s too late. Mr. Stark has already hung up. So, on top of his regular Lab Director stuff later, he’s gonna have to deal with a disgruntled ~~dad~~ mentor.

***********************************

After napping through all of Spanish and about half of Physics, the nurse kicks Peter out with a bandaid slapped on his forehead and a late pass. 

Energized from his nap and his lighthearted banter with Mr. Stark, Peter’s actually excited to get back to class. Maybe Mr. Harrington will have something interesting today! Who knows? It might even be something Peter doesn’t know yet!

But, alas, class, much like life, is a disappointment. Peter walks in, ready to go, only for Mr.Harrington to say that he wants to speak with Peter after class. Great.

The class drags on and on. Mr. Harrington’s voice becomes background noise as Peter gives up on paying attention and pulls out his notebook. From there, it’s easy to work out new Avenger’s tech to distract himself from his impending doom. Because really, has anything ever good come from a teacher asking to speak to you after the class? The answer is no, plain and simple. Plus, with the infamous Parker Luck, it’s pretty much a sealed deal that it’s going to be something horrible.

That is, until it’s not.

“...and I know that some kids have been rude to you about your internship, but I’d really like to thank you, Peter. I know that our class wouldn’t have had this opportunity without you.” Mr. Harrington says, pulling Peter back to the moment after he started zoning out.

“Wait, you believe me about my internship, Mr. Harrington?”

“Well, these internship papers sent in by Stark Industries are quite believable.” Mr. Harrington states in his usual dry deadpan, but with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. “As I was saying, Peter, I just wanted to thank you, and ask that you pass on my gratitude to Mrs. and Mr. Stark for this amazing opportunity.”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, I can do that. Anyways, I’ve got to get to my next class, so can I go or…”

“No, go ahead Peter. Have a nice day.”

“You too, Mr.Harrington.” Peter chirps, ever polite while he silently freaks out inside. 

There’s no way that Mr. Stark was the mastermind behind this operation so that just leaves Pepper. And no one can say no to Pepper. 

So now Peter _really_ can’t get out of this. Huzzah.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all know the routine. also, i've decided to move from kind to threatening. it seems fun. so leave kudos and comments. or else. <333


	6. Peter's rlly dumb

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Peter's rlly hecking dumb guys.  
> Thanks for sticking around, and sorry it took so long to get to the actual field trip lol. I promise there's more coming up, and more Avengers sightings. Be sure to check out the two extras I have posted in the series! Also, this ch was 5 words short of 2000, making it the longest one yet. Ngl, i'm a little proud of that. 
> 
> As always, italics are Peter's thoughts.

Before Peter knows it, the day of his death is upon him. The day that Peter usually yearns for, wishes to come closer for the sweet promise of freedom, has turned its back on him. Friday. The day of the dreaded trip.

The day starts off crappy.

_‘Crap shit shit crap heck Mj is gonna kill me if I miss the bus’_

For someone so intelligent, Peter can be insanely dumb. Having taken advantage of May taking the night shift the night before, he had stayed out past curfew to help a few extra people. It had been nice to let go for once, and to just focus on the good work he had been doing. Until he was lightly stabbed in the arm. Karen being Karen, immediately alerted Mr. Stark due to the, ‘Baby got a boo-boo’ protocol. 

_‘You lie about a gunshot **one time** and you’re screwed for life.’ _

So now Mr.Stark was ~~worried sick~~ pissed at Peter for getting hurt, and for skipping curfew. Even if his accelerated healing meant that his arm only throbbed a little in the morning, combined with the stress from the head scrape on Wednesday, it was enough to get Peter a lovely lecture.

With that on his mind, Peter barely makes it into homeroom before the bell rings. It probably doesn’t help his case that he stopped to pet that cat, though. 

“Thought you weren’t gonna show for a second there, loser.” MJ greets Peter, her lips curling into a smirk of their own accord, softening her harsh words.

“There was a cat, MJ! It’d be a crime to not say hi!” Peter says. “Plus, if I skipped out on this trip, I’m pretty sure the entire Avengers would come after me to drag me to the tower. And I’m talking ALLLL of them here.”

“Ignoring the cat bit- you’re really a nerd, Pete- that’s very plausible. It would certainly be enjoyable, though. At least with you here, I’ll have some fun expressions to draw on the trip.”

“Glad I can be of service to _someone_ ,” Peter says, dejected.. 

“Good morning, class.” the teacher, Mrs. Warren, says, shutting up Peter and MJ. “Before we begin, those of you in AP Physics or AP Computer Science can leave now for the trip to Stark Industries. Please be quiet in the halls, and head straight to the front of the school.”

Around half of the class got up to leave, after all, it is a STEM school. Peter and MJ grab their things, and start the trek down. Ned, who has a different first period class, will meet them at the buses so that they can all sit together.

“Hey, MJ?” Peter starts.

“Hm?”

“How can you read while walking without mowing anyone down?”

“Magic. Also I’ve been perfecting my technique since kindergarten.” MJ deadtones without looking up. However, if anyone who knew MJ very well were to look into her eyes, they might see just a tiny bit of fondness in them. Of course, her head is stuck in her book, so the moment is lost.

 _‘What a geek.’_ Peter thinks, fond of his girlfriend’s antics. _‘MY geek. Wait no, not my geek. I can’t own another person. She’d probably lecture me if she knew what I was thinking…’_

MJ and Peter reach where the buses will pull up, and come to a stop. MJ doesn’t usually enjoy showing affection in public, but because she knows how tired Peter is, she lets him put his head on her shoulder while she continues reading. 

“Awww, if it isn’t the school’s favorite couple? Penis and his trained bitch! Careful there, Parker. You don’t want her to bite ya!” Flash taunts, seemingly not knowing the meaning of the words ‘tact’ or ‘maturity’. 

“Go away, Eugene. Isn’t there someone else you can bother?” MJ says, neither her or Peter lifting their heads.

Flash, deciding that he’s had enough, punches Peter in the arm. Peter can sense it coming, not only from Flash’s poor stance but also due to his super anxiety. But he doesn’t dodge out of the way like he normally would; there’s not really a way to explain how a nerd suddenly knows how to sense a punch and block it. 

So Flash, weakly, punches Peter in the arm. Right on top of his stab wound. Understandably so, Peter’s fake wince turns real as his arm smarts. 

_‘Thanks, Flash. Just what I needed to make this shitty day even better: me in pain while the Avengers decide to pummel you into the Earth’s core. Just what the Avengers need for some **great** PR’_ Peter sarcastically monologues. No one ever seems to see past the happy go lucky outlook that Peter has to see that, inside, he’s really a little shit.

“What, Penis? Can’t handle a little jab? I barely even brushed you!” Flash cackles as he saunters off, happy to have finally ‘won’ an encounter with Peter; the past few days haven’t really done wonders for his ego.

Ned runs up to the couple, abruptly cutting off anything else that could’ve been said by either Peter or MJ. The trio sits in wait for the buses, chatting aimlessly. As expected for any school trip, the buses are all running late. When they finally get to pile on the buses, it feels like the entire staff tried to bribe their way onto this trip. 

_’Miss Mouilissa? Why are you here? You teach English?’_

“How did Mr.Morita get on this trip? Who’s doing his job if he’s here?” Ned remarks, flabbergasted, as the trio get on the second bus.

“Dude you think I know? I’m just pissed ‘cause I’m almost 100% sure that the Avenger’s had a team meeting on how to embarrass me.” Peter complains.

“Wow, I really _am_ going to have fun sketching you and Flash this trip, aren’t I, Pete?” MJ says, to no response other than a deep, pained groan that she ignores.

The trio makes it to their seats without any other confidential information leaking, and it’d almost be believable that Ned didn’t care about Peter’s upcoming doom. But alas, his excitement to see his friend embarrassed vastly outweighs his guilt. 

“Hey, MJ,” Peter says, resigned to his fate slightly more. “Can I nap on you on the way there? I really didn’t get enough sleep…”

“Yeah, sure, I suppose. At least you’re finally self aware that you don’t get enough sleep.”

“You’re one to talk, ‘Miss I-go-to-bed-at-4-am-cause-I-was-reading.’” Peter says, using dumb air quotes around his words.

“You guys are both sleep deprived, alright? This is our senior year at a highly competitive STEM school. There’s nobody on this bus who _isn’t_ sleep deprived.” Ned says, making a very good point and ending the conversation.

Peter slips on his special Stark-designed earbuds to listen to some music, and help block out the noise from the bus as his two friends both settle in for the ride. Unbeknownst to him, Ned and MJ have a pact to always let Peter take naps on them when he can, seeing as he rarely gets enough sleep as it is, even in comparison to everyone else. The 45 minute bus ride (there’s a lot of traffic) goes by too quickly in Peter’s mind, as he has a fitful rest that doesn’t really make him feel much better. 

But before he knows it, the bus is pulling up outside of the building to the ‘oooooo’s and ‘ahhhhh’s of his classmates, save MJ. It takes a lot to impress that girl. Everyone disembarks from the buses, a mass of about 60 kids and 20 or so chaperones. Peter rubs the back of his neck, a little embarrassed that he’s seen everything before. Sure, the view never quite gets old, but the allure wears off a little after the first year or so.

The school stampedes into the lobby, startling a few scientists. They don’t really get as many field trips as they used to as SI due to all the paperwork and security measures the schools have to go through. As such, no one really expects to see 60 hyper kids in their workplace. Mr. Morita strides over to the receptionist to get the passes and tell SI that the school arrived. It takes a few minutes, but when he eventually walks back over to the group with his bounty, he looks absolutely giddy. Stark Industries already went to the trouble of separating all the badges, meaning that the 2 classes of AP Physics and the 2 of Computer Science are all ready. Peter, Ned, and MJ, all have physics together so luckily they’re all in the same group. Most of the AcaDec team is in their class too, which unfortunately means Flash and his cronies. At least it’ll only be about 18 kids that get to see Peter humiliated. Yayyy. 

The teachers corral all the students into their class periods, and split up the chaperones so that each group of kids are properly supervised. Really though, five chaperones per 15 or so kids? Slightly overkill. On the bright side, Peter’s period ended up with Mr. Harrington, so that’ll be fun. 

The passes are all given out alphabetically, each one personalized with their own name on it. SI takes its security very seriously. Peter, due to the fact that badges are rarely (if ever) reprinted, doesn’t have one in the pile.

“Peter, you have your own badge right? There’s none left in the box, so if you need one we’ll need to tell the receptionist.” Mr. Harrington says.

FRIDAY, and JOCASTA for that measure, both recognize Peter’s biometrics, but Peter still has a hard copy of his badge just in case, and to keep up appearances with the lower workers at SI.

“Yup! I have it right here!” Peter says, swinging his backpack to his front to grab it, but finding nothing. “At least, I could’ve sworn I put it in my bag? Shit shit shit shit shit” Peter panics, muttering the curse word under his breath as he tears through his bag.

“Dude? You know you don’t need your badge, right? Aren’t you supposed to be smart?” Ned says, amused at his friends forgetfulness. 

“Thank Thor, you’re right! I definitely didn’t forget about JOCASTA dude, ha ha.” Peter awkwardly laughs, not hiding the fact well that he completely forgot. 

“What’s that, Parker? Don’t have your badge? Shame, guess the internship is fake after all.” Flash taunts, mindful of all the adults around him. His words do what he intended though, as everyone starts to gossip under their breaths. Peter, of course, can hear all their doubts as if they were speaking normally. 

‘ _Gotta love super hearing!_ ’ Peter thinks sarcastically.

The murmuring all comes to an abrupt stop as a figure nose dives down from the 20 foot high ceiling.

“HOLY SHIT!” Flash screams, not unlike a little girl, sparing Peter the need to respond to his kindergarten insult.

“OHMYGOD HE’S GONNA DIE!” someone else shrieks.

Thankfully, the figure is attached to a harness of some sort, and stops Bond style right above the floor before unhooking and back flipping down. The mystery figure looks around for a few seconds before spotting the group of children and stalking up to Peter’s group

“Heya Pete! Thought you might’ve wanted this!” Clint Barton, in his full Hawkeye gear, says with a shit-eating grin on his face, holding out Peter’s badge.

Peter mentally face palms.

‘ _So it begins, I guess._ ’

“Was that necessary?” Peter deadpans as his classmates all whisper around him, Flash looking like a deer in headlights next to him.

“Yes.”

“Great. Thanks Clint. You can go now.”

“You’re in for a real treat here, Petey-pie and other smaller humans! Hope you’re ready!” Clint says before shooting an arrow to the rafters and pulling himself away.

‘ _Can’t. WAIT_ ’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Band camp starts next week, and school starts soon, so updates are going to be a little more sporadic, but hopefully I can keep it up. I only have the chapters planned to chapter 7 too, so I need to do that as well. Oof. Don't forget about the extras!! And be sure to leave comments and kudos. or else. (they're my lifeblood) <33
> 
> One last thing, but thank you to everyone who has left a comment or kudos. I'm not kidding when i say that they really mean a lot. I try to respond to every comment too, so that's an added bonus for yall to comment i guess. xoxo


	7. Spider-Man? Afraid of Spiders? It's more likely than you think

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mamma Mia *cocks shotgun* here we go again

Thankfully, the chaos that results from an Avenger dropping from the ceiling is short-lived as four interns appear from some backroom ( _’where they were probably plotting my demise_ ’). The lead tour guide holds up her hands for silence and, for once, everyone shuts up.

“Hi there, Midtown! Welcome to Stark Industries! My name is Tesha Sengupta, and my associates and I are all interns here at SI. Today, however, we will be your tour guides.”

Peter starts to die a little inside. Right. The Interns.

At Stark Industries, they want the interns to make sure they really know what they’re talking about. And as they say, if you can explain the topic to a kid in a way that’ll stick then you really know your stuff. Also, none of the workers want to deal with a bunch of high schoolers. The tour guide job rotates amongst the interns, and everyone takes a turn to work on their public speaking. Peter has done more than his fair share as well, seeing as Mr. Stark thought it’d be both funny and good for Peter to work on his nerves. Even though Peter was ‘promoted’ to Lab Director a year or so ago, he still enjoys giving tours when he has a free minute.

But the crux of the whole problem for Peter right now is that he’s the boss of all these people; he _knows_ each of them, and even considers them friends.

‘ _shit._ ’

The rest of the interns, Kevin Jelkan, Felicity Merl, and Francis Summant, all introduce themselves and pass it back over to Tesha to get started.

“Today, hopefully, we’ll be able to cover a lot of the tower! But before we can get started, everyone will need to pass through these scanners here.” Tesha walks over to said scanners, gesturing to them as she speaks. “Now, you’ll want to copy me by scanning your badge and walking through. Anything metal will need to be placed into the receptacles, and then you can place them in a locker for later pick-up. You can do the same for your back-packs.”

‘ _double shit._ ’

"NED!” Peter hisses. “Dude my badge is different!”

“Just play it off! You’ll be fine!”

“NO, dude, you don’t understand! FRIDAY will announce me!”

“Does she always do it?”

“Not always, but if I’m coming in at a weird time she will. Or, if Mr. Stark tells her to, she will. Mr. Stark is a little shit, so she definitely will.. I’m so screwed.”

Flash shoves his way to the front of the line, scanning his badge and walking through the scanners. His face quickly falls, though, when the only thing interesting that happens is the guard pointing him towards the locker section to lock up his stuff. JOCASTA would never announce the people entering the building, for that would be a huge safety risk!

The line quickly dwindles, until Peter is the last one not past the gates. 

“What’s wrong Pen-Parker?” Flash says, quickly correcting himself because of all the adults present. “Afraid your fake badge won’t work?” 

Mr. Harrington retaliates with a pointed “Mr. Thompson” that ends the confrontation before it can start. The promise of finally proving Flash wrong is enough to get Peter through the gates, scanning his badge and pausing for-

“Good morning, Peter. You’re here early. Would you like me to let Mr. Stark know of your arrival?” Peter wasn’t positive, but FRIDAY was giving off very smug vibes.

“Yeah, I’m here on a field trip. And you don’t need to tell him Fri, I’m sure he already knows.”

Peter can vaguely see his classmates freaking out at him conversing with a voice that seems to be coming from nowhere, and Ned looking thrilled.

‘ _Well this is fun!'_

“ Boss Baby has asked me to remind you to call him Tony, because he is not a 90-year-old man, unlike other members of the team.”

“Tell Mr. Stark that he’s basically elderly at this point and he needs to accept it. Oh! And tell him that he’s right about the Mr. Stark thing. It’s about time I acknowledge his PhDs, and call him Dr. Stark.” Peter says, smiling cheekily the whole time.

After a lack of response from Friday Peter turns to look at Flash, who’s lost his confused look and just turned to anger.

“Of course you’re the one who’s gonna get stopped by security, Parker.”

“That’s what you got out of my conversation? Not the fact that I’m talking to an AI?”

"Now there, young man. There’s no reason to worry,” Kevin steps in. Kevin was the intern that Peter forced to get some sleep when he first came to the labs on Friday. This sort of feels like payback for that. “FRIDAY is Dr. Starks AI, and she is present everywhere in the building, occasionally helping out. Peter here is well known all around the tower, and he’s pretty much the only one I’ve seen acknowledged by FRIDAY besides Dr.Stark himself. This is a normal occurrence for us.”

Peter blushes, embarrassed by the sudden attention of a bunch of nosy kids. He may have known this would happen, but it actually occurring is something different entirely.

“Alright class,” Tesha tries to get the group back on track, “we have time for a few questions before we do our first activity! Please raise your hand so I can-”

“Hey, Penis,” Flash hisses as he sidles up to Peter, cutting off Tesha’s spiel.

“What,” Peter says, utterly done with the whole conversation before it starts. “I’m trying to listen here.”

“How’d you get that fake badge, and those people to pretend to know you? Bribery? If you wanted to bribe an Avenger I would’ve at least gone with a cooler one, not some dimwit with a bow and arrow. And if you were trying to get a badge I’d at least get one that doesn’t look _that_ fake, dumbass liar.” Flash says, seeming every bit the smug bastard that he is.

“Yes, Flash,” Peter deadpans. “with my single working mother, no job, and my scholarship money. I bribed Tony Stark- the billionaire- to let me into his building. How did you know?”

Flash winces, but determined not to lose the confrontation, raises his hand and, without waiting to be called on, interrupts the intern who was speaking, “Excuse me, but what do the different badge colors mean?”

(In this day and age of bullies, just being an all-around jerk doesn't cut it anymore. You have to actually be an okay-ish person to everyone else, therefore making your victim feel even worse, as if they did something wrong. After all, Flash may have had his parents pay his way for many things, but he _is_ at a Smart Kid School™. He does have some level of intelligence and manners, which sucks for Peter.)

“Excellent question, young man, but please wait to be called on.” One of the interns say.

“It’s okay, Felicity, I was going to cover it later anyway, may as well do it now,” Tesha says. “Here at SI, we take security very seriously. Badges are very rarely reprinted, and all of the higher up labs require an eyeball scan, your fingerprint, or FRIDAY just scans your biometrics. There are 50 different types of badges, from Red-10 to Purple-1, with no yellow. Each color is a different category with levels of clearance within it. You all have a Purple-3 badge, meaning you are above the paparazzi,” Tesha pauses as everyone lifts their badges to stare at it in awe, and whisper to their friends.

“You’ll be able to take your badge with you as a souvenir when you leave, as they are of one-time use. If you ever need to return to the tower, you can bring your badge with you and FRIDAY will reinstate it. 

“We also take bullying here at SI very seriously, so please be on your best behavior while you are here. That’s one of the reasons why our badges don’t have a numerical value on them, as well as for security. I can’t give you the breakdown of the badge levels either, for this reason, sorry.” Tesha finishes up, slipping in a little warning about bullying after having watched Peter’s interactions with Flash from afar. Peter may be her boss, but he’s everyones’ kid brother, and they care about him.

“Alright! Let’s get moving! My group and Francis’ group will be heading to the Stark Industries museum, and Felicity's and Kevin’s will go to the Avenger’s museum. We’ll flip flop after, so don’t worry about missing out!”

*********************

After Felicity re-introduces herself to Peter’s class, everyone piles into an elevator to head to the Avenger’s museum for 20 minutes. It’s nothing that Peter hasn’t seen before, so he sort of wanders around aimlessly for 10 minutes or so before he’s cornered by Ned.

“PETER! THERE’S A SPIDER-MAN EXHIBIT!” Ned whisper-shouts, his excitement overcoming his need to be discreet. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Mr. Stark put it in a while ago but I haven’t really had a reason to come down here.”

"Is it realistic?” MJ asks, pausing in her sketch of Flash’s panicked face when Peter was talking to FRIDAY.

“Let’s find out, I guess.”

The trio moves on, Ned leading the way ecstatically over to the display. In it, there’s a plaque reading ‘Spider-Man’ and describing how ‘Spider-Man may be little league right now, but someone has to help the little guy! This young hero was offered a position on the team a few years ago, but deferred in order to stay local. Still, Iron Man’s protégé is considered an honorary Avenger, and helps out the team on occasion’. There are also some fun facts about Spider-Man, such as the fact that he’s ironically afraid of spiders, and that his favorite candy is sour gummy worms. A (disabled) copy of Peter’s mock 1 web-shooters are featured in the display case, as well as his mock 2 suit. 

_’At least it’s not the onesie…’_

“Are you really afraid of spiders?” MJ smirks.

“Hey! You try getting bit by one only to get insanely sick, and then you can talk!” 

“Fight, fight, fight,” Ned hums absentmindedly, used to the couple’s banter.

Flash, seemingly not knowing how to stand down, chooses this moment to stalk up to Peter.

“Hey, Penis! How many dicks did you have to suck to get here?”

Peter, having finally gotten a taste of self-preservation, just ‘nopes’ out of the situation by turning around and walking to the Captain America and Winter Soldier displays.

“That’s sick, Flash. Real mature, too. Sooooo... yeah!” Ned flounders before spinning on his heel to chase after Peter and MJ, who had already left. 

Flash’s words chase after Ned’s retreating back, “Whatever, tubby!” 

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view, Bucky Barnes melts out of the shadows near his exhibit when Peter arrives.

“Kind of you to finally visit the best display in this joint, huh kid?” 

“Sure thing, Bucky! Gotta save the best for last! That’s why I’m here to look at Mr. Good-and-Righteous!”

Bucky snorts and shakes his head good-naturedly as he steps away from the wall. “So what was up with that dick of a kid? Need me to _take him out_?” 

“What? No, it’s fine! I’ve got it handled!”

“Not really, actually,” MJ says.

“GASP!” Peter says, overdramatic.

“Yeah, no, MJ is right. You really don’t, Peter.” Ned throws Peter under the bus, no remorse in sight.

“Et tu, Ned? Et tu?”

“Hm. And what’s this about kids not believing you about your internship either? Do I need to _suggest_ some ideas to a few individuals?”

“I don’t know how you reached that conclusion, ‘cause that’s fake news. And no, you don't have to, ” Peter says, trying to put some conviction into his words. The last thing he needs is Bucky threatening the whole school with decapitation. 

“Uh, wrong again broski. We only want what’s best for you, and you can’t do this on your own anymore,” Ned says to Peter apologetically before turning to Bucky. “Most kids don’t believe Peter. I mean, it is sort of wild that Peter has an internship here, so you can’t blame them. Nobody is really up-front about their disbelief, though. It’s usually just gossiping behind our backs. I wouldn’t recommend wasting your time breaking any necks, it’s just dumb kids.”

“Hm,” Bucky says, saving that little tidbit of information for later. "Anyways, I came down here to give you some cookies; I just made a fresh batch.”

“Nice, thanks Bucky! You better get out of here though, your ‘disguise’ is sorta shit.”

But Peter’s words come too late, as his peers have started to circle in like vultures, pretending to want to look at the displays. 

“How odd that the Captain America display is suddenly so interesting. I wonder what it could be…” MJ jokes.

“You may have a point there. Well, it’s been fun, Petey and friends!” Bucky waves as he turns around and dead sprints to the stairs.

 _’There’s no way he’s sprinting up to the common room._ ’

“There’s no chance in hell that this isn’t going to come back and bite you in the ass, Pete,” MJ says, amusement leaking into her voice. “I’m going to have to get a new sketchbook!”

******************

“Wait, so kids are being assholes to Peter?” Steve says, sitting up in his chair.

“LANGUAGE!” half the room shouts in response, causing Steve to slump back down, and bang his head on the table.

“One time, guys. **ONE** time…”

Natasha pauses from sharpening her knife. “Anyways, why are kids being mean to Peter?”

“They don’t think he has an internship here.”

“Well then, I guess we just have to change the battle plans, huh? Someone call Shuri, and Nat you better head down. Let’s get to work…” Mr. Stark says, rubbing his hands together like some low-grade villain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, Bucky only sprinted up one flight of stairs before he said screw this and just took an elevator up. Why would he exercise if he didn't have to? Jesus, he's not Steve...
> 
> I changed the status of this fic to T, btw, cause of all the swearing oof.
> 
> Y'all should check out [this post](https://irondad-not-ironsad.tumblr.com/post/186088985574/tony-peter-parker-yeah-i-know-him-hes-my) for my inspiration to how Peter tells Flash off. Our boi is getting a llittle bold, he better be careful now.
> 
> Anyways!! Pls leave comments and kudos, i love you all. Tell me what you rlly think! I want to know! What did you have for dinner? What's ur fave fanfic and why? What color shirt do u have on? it's whatever! do whatever u want bbys!! <333
> 
> edit:  
> someone said in a comment that Ned sorta comes off in a bad light here, so i thought i'd give a little backstory to my au here:  
>  in this fic May knows about the bullying because Ned told her about it a few years ago, but she doesn't know how bad it is now. She tried to tell the administration back in sophomore year but the bullying just got worse afterwards, so she didn't try again. I went back and changed a few of Ned's interactions with Flash to try and paint it in a better light too. Ned really just wants what's best for Peter, and when he sees a situation that'll let the Avengers help fix the problem he's going to jump on it. He hasn't told them before cause he knows that it doesn't always make a situation better when you tell an adult.

**Author's Note:**

> Welp. Pls leave comments and kudos I’m still a little insecure about all this, but thanks for sticking through!!
> 
> Also if you wanna follow my tumblr it’s [Smol0ctopus](https://smol0ctopus.tumblr.com/)


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